The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
announced on October 29 that is delaying the compliance dates of the “information blocking” rule established pursuant to the 21
st Century Cures Act. Citing the need to “provide additional time to allow everyone in the health care ecosystem to focus on COVID-19 response,” HHS extended the compliance date for information blocking requirements to April 5, 2021. Other health IT certification criteria and API functionalities were further delayed to December 31, 2022.
The delay provides relief to health care providers, certified EHR developers, and health information exchanges that have been working to operationalize and implement the 21
st Century Cures Act rules. In addition to the
interim final rule posted on November 2 establishing the delayed compliance dates, HHS also posted several long-awaited
FAQs regarding the information blocking rule.
If you have questions about the information blocking rules, contact WHA General Counsel
Matthew Stanford.